French film financing agency BackUp Films has created a new funding scheme intended to co-acquire distribution rights alongside independent distributors.
The venture, entitled Districup, will share risk with distributors while the distributors will have the opportunity to own all of the co-acquired rights following the first exploitation cycle.
In its first partnership agreement, Districup is teaming with Jean Labadie's Le Pacte to co-acquire a five-film slate with a global investment of between Euros 1m and Euros 1.5m.
Films in the line up will be released by Le Pacte which has previously partnered with BackUp's sofica investment vehicle on Francois Ozon's Ricky and Christophe Honore's La Belle Personne. Neither of those films is included in the new five-film slate.
BackUp is currently mulling deals with other distributors which it plans to announce in the coming months. Further, it also intends to broaden the scope of its intervention to P&A financing.
Ongoing funding for Districup is provided by private investors, although BackUp declined to identify them.
BackUp is a Paris-based film project packager and investment funds manager which also boasts film and TV dedicated funds Coficup and Cofanim.
In a statement, BackUp said: 'Districup enhances the wide array of financing opportunities BackUp offers to film and TV indies. From now on, the agency will be able to act at all stages of the film process, structuring international co-productions, brokering distribution deals and offering development, production and distribution financing to the international film community.'
BackUp principal Olivier Aknin told Screen that Districup intends to work with an array of distributors who may not have the same editorial line as it endeavors to avoid 'head-on competition.'
The plan for the moment is to concentrate on France, but Aknin allowed, 'Why not widen that to Europe.'
The venture, entitled Districup, will share risk with distributors while the distributors will have the opportunity to own all of the co-acquired rights following the first exploitation cycle.
In its first partnership agreement, Districup is teaming with Jean Labadie's Le Pacte to co-acquire a five-film slate with a global investment of between Euros 1m and Euros 1.5m.
Films in the line up will be released by Le Pacte which has previously partnered with BackUp's sofica investment vehicle on Francois Ozon's Ricky and Christophe Honore's La Belle Personne. Neither of those films is included in the new five-film slate.
BackUp is currently mulling deals with other distributors which it plans to announce in the coming months. Further, it also intends to broaden the scope of its intervention to P&A financing.
Ongoing funding for Districup is provided by private investors, although BackUp declined to identify them.
BackUp is a Paris-based film project packager and investment funds manager which also boasts film and TV dedicated funds Coficup and Cofanim.
In a statement, BackUp said: 'Districup enhances the wide array of financing opportunities BackUp offers to film and TV indies. From now on, the agency will be able to act at all stages of the film process, structuring international co-productions, brokering distribution deals and offering development, production and distribution financing to the international film community.'
BackUp principal Olivier Aknin told Screen that Districup intends to work with an array of distributors who may not have the same editorial line as it endeavors to avoid 'head-on competition.'
The plan for the moment is to concentrate on France, but Aknin allowed, 'Why not widen that to Europe.'
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